An interdisciplinary liberal arts program can prompt innovative ideas and self-discovery when fired in a kiln of social and economic justice fueled by high-impact practices. Developing learning communities, internships, group projects, local-to-global learning, community-based service learning, and capstone projects can enhance education and…

This chapter examines the current state of college unions at small colleges and offers a forecast of their future.

This chapter examines the impact of declining student response rates on surveys administered at small- and medium-sized institutions. The potential for nonresponse bias and its effects are addressed.

Using an assessment cycle as an organizing framework, this article illustrates how educational development and assessment mutually complement each other. It describes an assessment study conducted to determine if two colleges at a small university met their strategic goals to increase the adoption of learning-centered teaching. This study served…

This research explored the relationship between total-trait emotional intelligence and academic stress among college students at a small, private college. Student total-trait emotional intelligence (TTEI) and university stress scores were significantly correlated. Measures of TTEI and USS are useful for student intervention to impact issues such…

Participants were 318 college students from two small, Catholic liberal arts institutions in the Upper Midwest. Variation (i.e., having friends with varied interests and activities) of an individual's social network was measured by a researcher-developed inventory, the Social Network Variation Scale (SNVS). Social network strength was measured by…

Gateway testing is an important pedagogic tool employed by many university mathematics departments in calculus and precalculus courses. With a goal of ensuring that students attain needed basic skills in courses with a conceptual "reform" orientation, these tests provide an efficient means of assessing a large volume of student work,…

Historically, empirical research exploring the roles, responsibilities, and challenges of department chairs has been limited and narrow in scope. In addition, these studies have not kept pace with the rapidly changing nature of higher education. The current study consists of data collected from a survey of current and former chairs at a small,…

Opportunities to learn how to develop engaging learning experiences are vital for preservice teachers. This article describes an in-class modeling activity, provides assignment guidelines, and includes examples of candidates' completed tasks when developing technology-integrated instruction using Quick Response (QR) codes. The content of…

Guided by Bandura's theoretical construct of self-efficacy, in this study, we attempted to model the relationship between preservice elementary teachers' sources of self-efficacy and their constructivist, and traditional beliefs related to teaching and learning by multiple linear regression analyses. Participants consist of 151 preservice…

This chapter discusses principles that support using data about teaching and learning and offers several strategies particularly well suited for use by institutional researchers at small colleges in helping faculty, staff, and administrators use data on student learning for improvement.

In this article, the author examines tap dance as an embodied feminist pedagogy through a course she teaches called Critical Race Feminisms and Tap Dance at Colby College, a small liberal arts college (SLAC) in Waterville, Maine. The course combines introductory tap dancing with elements of critical race theory and black feminist thought. Students…

Professors are often the first to introduce students to career-specific ethical dilemmas. Standard teaching methods for ethical classwork are mundane, typically involving lectures and case studies; however, research concludes that students have the best results from educational experiences when able to influence course composition. The authors…

Although several ethical decision-making methods exist, there is a dearth of research evaluating their use and effectiveness. This study examined graduate student papers by both art therapy and counseling students that applied either the DO ART model (developed for art therapists) or the ABCDE worksheet (for general mental health usage) to case…

This study explored the extent to which nontraditional physical activity courses and student experiences reflect a pleasure and participation sports model. The theoretical framework for this qualitative study was based on the pleasure and participation sports model (Coakley, 2017). Data via 20 observations and 20 interviews were gathered from…